Community

An-Li Herring/Town Crier
Visitors tour the upgraded HOME apartment, one of 42 being renovated at the complex near Stanford’s medical center.

The Assistance League of Los Altos last week marked 30 years of offering low-cost housing to outpatients at Stanford University Medical Center by unveiling renovations to its apartment complex, located adjacent to the medical campus.

The upgrades, which so far are limited to one model unit and a few common areas, will make the apartments more handicapped-accessible and energy-efficient. Plans also include modern features such as stainless-steel appliances, laminate flooring and colorful furniture.

Town Crier file photo
Students from Hillview’s Children’s Corner preschool last winter help Loved Twice workers load a car with clothing donations for mothers in need. Another clothing drive takes place this month.

The annual Children’s Corner and Loved Twice clothing drive doesn’t just help the new mothers who receive the clothes – it also fosters a sense of empathy in the preschool-aged children who donate.

“I think that kids must get so much out of this – somebody that young to think about others,” said Lance Lawson, Loved Twice’s development and community relations director for Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

I consider myself intellectually curious. I read books voraciously, listen to music and attend museums and the theater. But I also have a dirty little secret: I love television.

Courtesy of Animal Assisted Happiness
Therapeutic things come in small packages, as this Animal Assisted Happiness rabbit proves.

Animal lovers have a final opportunity to raise funds for a public-service barnyard with local origins.

Blach Intermediate School eighth-grader Samantha Waldbusser has scheduled a fundraiser 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at Full Circle Farm, where participants can paint a stepping stone and meet the mini-donkey, goats, chickens and other beasts of Animal Assisted Happiness. The nonprofit animal farm, founded by Los Altos residents, welcomes children with health or family challenges.

Szekely

Longtime Los Altos resident Marguerite Szekely, who passed away last July at age 91, bequeathed more than $1.8 million to Los Altos Community Foundation’s Endowment Fund, which will support the community in perpetuity.

Szekely was born in Nebraska and eventually settled in Los Altos, where she lived for more than half a century.

Phil Ackerly will be a featured performer at this year’s free Peninsula Symphony concert in Los Altos.

The Los Altos-based Peninsula Symphony has scheduled its annual free summer concert 6 p.m. June 17 at Hillview Park, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos.

Organizers encourage attendees to bring folding chairs, blankets and a picnic dinner to the concert, the theme of which is “Music, Magic, Comedy and Fun All Wrapped into One!”